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Releasing sea turtles in Puerto Vallarta is a lesson in perseverance

Newly-hatched sea turtles wait their chance to be released into the ociean.

Photograph by: Mark Stachiew
, Postmedia News

It's not just tourists that like the beaches in Puerto Vallarta. Sea turtles love them, too.

Female turtles, specifically Olive ridley sea turtles, come in droves every year to the Puerto Vallarta beaches where they were born to lay their own eggs, but there's a good chance that they weren't actually born there, but in a turtle egg nursery operated by the CasaMagna Marriott Hotel. Several other Puerto Vallarta hotels operate nurseries, but the Marriott's is the biggest.

For the past decade, the Marriott has hired biologists to patrol the Mexican city's beaches at night during the egg-laying season to collect the eggs so they can be safely incubated in a controlled environment that is safe from predators and human interference.

When the eggs hatch, the turtle hatchlings are released into the surf. What's great is that anyone can go to the beach in front of the hotel to participate in the event which takes place almost every night during the season from July to December. Each person in attendance gets to release their own little turtle into the sea and cheer it on in its effort to swim against the waves and head out to deep water where it can avoid being eaten by birds and fish.

Last year alone, the hotel released 47,000 turtles. Over the life of the program, it has raised and released more than 290,000 of them. Sadly, only about 5% of them ever survive to adulthood.

One of the original motivations for the hotel to start the program was simply to remove the turtle nests from the beach so that its guests could frolic on them without harming them, but it turned out to be a great public-relations exercise and it's also educational for local residents.

Among some Puerto Vallartans, turtle eggs are eaten because of their alleged aphrodesiac properties. A black market exists for people who want the eggs, but the hotel hopes that the conservation message it delivers to the many local school kids that visit will help educate them and eventually help reduce the demand for the eggs.

During my visit, I watched an excited group of grade school students and equally eager tourists all line upon the beach near sunset to receive instructions on how to safely release their turtles.

The hotel's biologist carried a large, red bucket of turtles which were all hatchlings from the same nest and hand them one by one to each person, as if they were in a line to receive Holy Communion.

Everyone lined up parallel to the ocean and were instructed to walk a metre toward the water where there was another line in the sand. Everyone was to release their turtle and step back to the first line to avoid stepping on the scurrying creatures as the surf flung them back up the shore.

The school kids were squealing with excitement as the countdown began for the release. On the count of uno, dos, tres, everyone walked forward and let their turtle go. We all gave cheers of encouragement to them as they were battered by the overpowering waves which must have been tsunami-sized to the tiny turtles which were only a few centimetres long. Eventually, they all made it beyond the breaking waves and you could see tiny, black heads bobbing in the sea. Everyone wished them well on their long, perilous journey to adulthood.

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